Mystery Surrounds Death Of Deep-sea Beaked Whale

Scientists have yet to determine the cause of death of a 14-foot beaked whale that washed ashore Sunday in Hampton.

"It's going to take longer than it normally does," said Joan Barns, spokeswoman for the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.

The whale, whose habitat is 60 to 100 miles offshore, appears to have died recently, Barns said. It showed no obvious signs of death, such as wounds from a boat strike.

The event drew an immediate response from the Navy, whose use of sonar has been linked to whale strandings.

"We have done an initial look," said Jene Nissen, acoustic policy manager with U.S. Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk. "We didn't find anything that could be associated with this stranding."

Environmental groups and scientists believe that sonar can harm or kill 37 species of marine mammals by interfering with their ability to navigate and communicate.

The National Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit against the Navy that was ultimately dismissed last year by a divided Supreme Court. It ruled that national security interests outweighed those of environmentalists.

The Navy routinely uses sonar on the East Coast, Nissen said. A Naval study published last December concluded that it has no ill effects on marine life, Nissen said.

"We are not hurting or killing marine mammals," he said.

A handful of scientists - from the aquarium's Marine Animal Care Center, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the University of North Carolina-Wilmington - will continue their examination of the whale.

It could be weeks before they determine a cause of death, if they do, Barns said.

A smaller species of whale that looks similar to dolphins, beaked whales feed on the ocean floor and are rarely sighted at sea.

Other threats to the species include habitat reduction, consumption of plastics and being caught in commercial fishing nets.